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This paper uses a method devised by Geary and Stark to estimate regional GDPs for 24 Swedish provinces 1855–2000. In empirical tests, we find that the Swedish estimations yield results of good precision, comparable to those reported in the international literature. From the literature, we generate six expectations concerning the development of regional GDPs in Sweden. Using the GDP estimations, we test these expectations empirically. We find that the historical regional GDPs show a high correlation over time, but that the early industrialization process coevolved with a dramatic redistribution of productive capacity. We show that the regional inequalities in GDP per capita were at their lowest point in modern history in the early 1980s. However, while efficiency in the regional system has never been as equal, absolute regional differences in scale of production has increased dramatically over our investigated period. This process has especially benefited the metropolitan provinces. We present detailed sources of our estimations and also sketch a research agenda from our results.

This chapter does three things. First, it estimates regional gross domestic product (GDP) for three different geographical levels in Switzerland (97 micro regions, 16 labor market basins, and 3 large regions). Second, it analyzes the evolution of regional inequality relying on a heuristic model inspired by Williamson (1965), which features an initial growth impulse in one or several core regions and subsequent diffusion. Third, it uses index number theory to decompose regional inequality into three different effects: sectoral structure, productivity, and comparative advantage.

The results can be summarized as follows: As a consequence of the existence of multiple core regions, Swiss regional inequality has been comparatively low at higher geographical levels. Spatial diffusion of economic growth occurred across different parts of the country and within different labor market regions. This resulted in a bell-shaped evolution of regional inequality at the micro regional level and convergence at higher geographical levels. In early and in late stages of the development process, productivity differentials were the main drivers of inequality, whereas economic structure was determinant between 1888 and 1941. The poorest regions suffered from comparative disadvantage, that is, they were specialized in the vary sector (agriculture), where their relative productivity was comparatively lowest.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EES) is among the fastest growing entrepreneurship research topics. With even greater vigour, the non-scientific world of economic development agencies, administrations and policymakers has adopted the construct and applies it widely “in the field”, often lacking a solid empirical foundation and pursuing sub-optimal approaches. Improving policy instruments for EES development requires a data driven approach to first understand an EES of a specific region before making any attempts to change it. The paper showcases an empirical approach to create empirically rooted EES policy implications, contributing to closing the gap for insight in regional EES data of sub-national regions.

Exploring a mixed method design, utilising quantitative Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data and combining it with EES stakeholder interviews, focusing on dysfunctions, redundancies, power asymmetries and cut off elements as well as in-layer division and public organisation behaviour.

One finding is, that regional economic development agencies (EDA), as a main public instrument to foster regional entrepreneurial activity, seem to bring the potential of a negative impact on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems bottom-up development and the ability to become self-sustained if they assume the role of competitors towards private organisations and businesses.

As other work on EES, the approach used in this paper only sub-optimally covers temporal system dynamics.

This paper contributes to future EES support policies being rooted in an empirical foundation.

This paper not only progresses the empirical basis for research on regional EES but also lays the foundation for specific policy implications for a sub-national level entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

Despite its popularity as the only method for measuring the national economic contribution of tourism accredited by the United Nations and other multilateral economic institutions, Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) is rarely applied to subnational regions. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent the compliance with some general principles that any regional TSA should follow contributes to better international comparability of tourism statistics, one of the main goals of the TSA.

Through secondary research, 14 countries have been identified making regional TSA applications by complying most likely with these principles. In this regard, some methodological issues and main results obtained by these countries are investigated.

This study concludes that international comparability of TSA compilation data at regional levels should be a long-term goal once congruence is achieved between national and regional TSAs.

The paper is not based on a primary data collection of TSA data.

The paper shows that regional TSAs might also be envisaged in the international comparability process of the national TSA data. It provides suggestions for how to use data to improve measurement of the economic contribution of tourism to regions.

It is the first paper addressing the international comparability of a sizable number of regional TSAs from 14 countries.

本文旨在理解任何一个区域TSA对这些原则的遵循多大程度上有助于提高旅游统计数据的国际可比性。这是TSA的主要目标之一。

尽管旅游卫星账户（TSA）作为联合国和其他多边经济机构官方认可的测量旅游业的国家经济贡献的唯一方法而广受欢迎, 但是TSA很少被应用于地方上。通过二次研究, 已经识别了14个国家通过遵循区域TSA应遵循的一般原则来应用区域TSA。本文研究了这些国家在这方面的方法论问题和主要成果。

本研究得出结论, 一旦国家和区域TSAs达成一致, 区域层面的TSA汇编数据的国际可比性应该成为一个长期目标。

本文并非基于TSA数据的原始数据集。

本文认为, 在各国TSA数据的国际可比性进程中可能也可以展望区域TSAs. 本文为如何利用数据提高旅游业对区域经济贡献的测量提出了建议。

这是第一篇涉及来自14个国家的相当大的数据量的TSAs国际可比性的文章。

El propósito de este documento es examinar en qué medida el cumplimiento de algunos principios generales que debe seguir cualquier CST regional contribuye a una mejor comparabilidad internacional de las estadísticas de turismo, uno de los principales objetivos de la CST.

A pesar de su popularidad como el único método para medir la contribución económica nacional del turismo acreditado por las Naciones Unidas y otras instituciones económicas multilaterales, la Cuenta Satélite de Turismo (CST), rara vez se aplica a las regiones subnacionales. Mediante investigaciones secundarias, se han identificado catorce países que realizan aplicaciones regionales de la CST, cumpliendo muy probablemente con algunos principios generales que toda CST regional debería seguir. A este respecto se investigan algunas cuestiones metodológicas y los principales resultados obtenidos por esos países.

Este estudio concluye que la comparabilidad internacional de los datos de compilación de la CST a nivel regional debería ser un objetivo a largo plazo, una vez que se logre la congruencia entre las CST nacionales y regionales.

El documento no se basa en una recopilación de datos primarios de la TSA.

El documento muestra que las CST regionales también podrían contemplarse en el proceso de comparabilidad internacional de los datos de CST nacionales. Ofrece sugerencias sobre cómo utilizar los datos para mejorar la medición de la contribución económica del turismo a las regiones.

Es el primer documento que aborda la comparabilidad internacional de un número considerable de CST regionales de catorce países.

The purpose of this paper is to outline an integrative modelling approach that includes agricultural and forestry process chains in an energy system model, on a regional scale. The main focus is on land use for biomass production, aimed at satisfying the demands for energy, food, and materials.

The described model combines geographic modelling with a linear optimisation approach. The cost‐based optimisation of the energy system includes agricultural and forestry process chains. The system's commodities and processes are identified and these are linked appropriately in the specifications of the reference system. Spatial models provided geographically specific input data for the optimisation; these spatial models were based on publicly available data, regional heat and electricity demands, and regional biomass potentials. The optimisation tool was applied in two case studies.

The optimisation results allow an improved understanding of the interdependencies between regional agricultural and forestry structures and the regional energy system. Future developments of the energy system can be quantified. The application of the model in the case studies has revealed the limits on biomass availability, even in rural areas, and the fossil fuel price sensitivity of an optimal system setup.

Geographic models linked to a forecast model approach and based on publicly available data allow a high spatial resolution by taking into account the region‐specific conditions and mean that the modelling approach is transferrable to other regions. This paper provides an initial insight into the linkage between bottom‐up optimisation and spatial modelling, representing an innovative approach that is yet to be well explored.

Suicide and self‐harm are major public health issues. This study aimed to assess how local and national data could be used more effectively in local suicide and self‐harm prevention strategies. Twelve semistructured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample of suicide prevention leads in one strategic health authority area and other key local and regional informants. Although suicide prevention work is supported by data, problems were identified with current processes and data and information availability. Local, regional and national health agencies all have a role in ensuring information is used in the best possible way to reduce self‐harm and suicide.

Action in international marketing is usually preceded by research. Most international marketing research reports are built on a skeleton of currently available international socio‐economic, demographic and social indicators. The author in this paper argues that the currently available indicators used by marketing analysts have in many cases little comparative value and are in many cases inadequate for, or irrelevant to, the requirements of marketing. He uses in illustration the needs of a specific project that had as its objective the prediction of the different levels of retail distribution in Western Europe. The limitations of available international indicators are analysed. Preferable alternatives are proposed. Some of these require original research: others the restructuring of existing data. It is also urged that it is a basic pre‐requisite that international marketing analysis be made at the level of the sub‐national region — not at national level. The formation of a specifically‐oriented Marketing Indicators Working Party is proposed.

In this paper, the authors set out to establish if there is a link between finance and economic growth in rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relation between credit by major lenders in rural areas – commercial banks and Farm Credit System (FCS) institutions – and economic growth for the period 1991-2010.

The motivation for this work comes from empirical studies showing a link between economic development and financial system development as well as from work which highlights the positive role of long-term finance provided by banks. The authors use two alternative panel data sets and fixed effects models to estimate the causal effect of credit supply (with lagged explanatory variables) on agricultural GDP growth per rural resident.

The authors find a positive association between agricultural lending and agricultural GDP growth per rural resident with additional billion in loans (about a third of the actual average) associated with 7-10 percent higher state growth rate with this association stronger during the 1990s. Regional data confirm these results. The results point to a positive link between credit and economic growth in rural areas during that period, attributable to the lending by FCS institutions and by commercial banks.

Data availability limits the scope of this paper. The authors use state level balance sheet data available for the 1991-2003 period and annual data for 2003-2010 period. An additional regional data set is constructed for 1991-2010 with more aggregated data for the ten USDA agricultural production regions. The small number of panels limits the ability to use more sophisticated econometric models and the choice of dependent variables that captures economic growth.

By provides evidence that agricultural finance and in particular lending contribute significantly to the growth of US agriculture, this paper contributes to the policy debate on weather support for agricultural finance initiatives is justified.

The authors are not aware of another study that has linked agricultural lending by commercial banks and FCS institutions to growth in rural areas in the USA.

Sustainability performance in higher education is often evaluated at a generalized large scale. It remains unknown to what extent campus efforts address regional sustainability needs. This study begins to address this gap by evaluating trends in performance through the lens of regional environmental characteristics.

Four sustainability metrics across 300 North American institutions are analyzed between 2005 and 2014. The study applies two established regional frameworks to group and assess the institutions: Commission on Environmental Cooperation Ecoregions and WaterStat (water scarcity status). Standard t-tests were used to assess significant differences between the groupings of institutions as compared to the North American study population as a whole.

Results indicate that all institutions perform statistically uniformly for most variables when grouped at the broadest (Level I) ecoregional scale. One exception is the Marine West Coast Forest ecoregion where institutions outperformed the North American average for several variables. Only when institutions are grouped at a smaller scale of (Level III) ecoregions do the majority of significant performance patterns emerge.

This paper demonstrates an ecoregions-based analytical approach to evaluating sustainability performance that contrasts with common evaluation methods in the implementation field. This research also identifies a gap in the literature explicitly linking ecological sub-regions with their associated environmental challenges and identifies next research steps in developing defensible regional targets for applied sustainability efforts.

The practical implications of this research include the following: substantive changes to methodologies for rating sustainability leadership and performance, a framework that incentivizes institutions to frame sustainability efforts in terms of collaborative or collective impact, a framework within which institutions can meaningfully prioritize efforts, and a potential shift toward regional impact metrics rather than those focused solely on campus-based or generalized targets.

The authors believe this to be the first effort to analyze North American higher education sustainability performance using regional frameworks.